Northern Gold Coast residents say a northbound slip lane is needed on M1 at Exit 41, local politicians and councillor wade into issue
Residents fighting for a safer upgrade of the M1 at Exit 41 say they fear being “monstered” by “lunatic truckies” and blame authorities for confusing residents.
Gold Coast
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ELDERLY residents already “frightened” of “being monstered” by the growing number of trucks exiting the M1 at Exit 41 say a northbound slip lane will ensure their safety while driving in and around Norfolk Village and Ormeau.
They also say Transport and Main Roads did not remove the slip lane from images that showed the changes to the busy interchange, which led many locals to believe the road would remain.
It comes as local councillor Mark Hammel works alongside MPs Michael Crandon and Bert van Manen to pressure Transport Minister Mark Bailey to reopen the community consultation process, saying residents were not fully informed of the proposed changes.
But Mr Bailey has accused the MPs of being “lazy” for not helping their constituents earlier, saying they were sent details of the upgrade in 2020 and TMR representatives had met with local members.
Linda Baker, who lives in Ormeau and regularly travels up and down the M1, said she wasn’t keen share the upgraded Exit 41 with truck drivers saying there were a lot of “lunatic” truckies on the road.
“Trucks have monstered me several times and the thought of not having a slip lane and having to exit alongside often speeding heavy vehicles is pretty frightening,” she said.
“As it is most don’t give way when they change lanes, I’ve almost been squashed by one, I was 12 inches away from certain death.”
Ms Baker also took aim at the Department of Transport and Main Roads for their “lazy” graphic that superimposed the upgrades to an existing topographical photo that still visibly includes the northbound slip lane in the background.
“Surely giving a before and after photo would have been smarter, removing the northbound slip lane completely from the photo”, she said.
“Residents, particularly older ones, aren’t experts in regards to the intricacies of road changes and I’m guessing most just assumed that because the slip lane was still in the photo that it was to remain,” she said.
Beverley Gordon, born in Beenleigh in 1947, has lived in the area her entire life and was part of the Ormeau Progress Association for 40 years. She says the majority of residents choose to drive past Exit 45 and use the northbound slip way at Exit 41.
“Without that option older people coming off at Exit 41 will be driving among trucks and then through two sets of traffic lights to go back to their residences. It’s going to be a lot more dangerous and less safe for small vehicles. The government says we use Exit 45 but the majority of us don’t.”
Norfolk Village resident Sandra Harwood, whose lived in the area for 18 years, said locals were already “battling” with an increase in industrial traffic from the Yatala area.
“The road is already there, all it needs a bit more bitumen and a bit of work,” she said.
“No one I’ve spoken to has known about this slip lane being discontinued, I think a mailbox drop would have been good. Until that meeting last week most people had no idea what was going on.”
Yalata Neighbourhood Watch secretary Heather Allard said it wasn’t just people who lived close to the exit that would benefit.
“Yatala residents would benefit from a slip lane at Exit 41 to enable them to quickly drop into the local shops of Norfolk, on their way home.”
The Exit 41 interchange upgrade community consultation took place in early 2020, with more than 11,000 newsletters distributed to residents and businesses in northern Gold Coast, including at Norfolk Village.
It’s understood the lack of a northbound slip lane was not raised as an issue during consultation, but as a result of other feedback a slip lane on the southbound off-ramp has been included for traffic heading to the industrial areas northeast of the interchange.
Mr Bailey said his department looked at the feasibility of the northbound slip lane to see what could be done but concluded low traffic volumes expected “would not offer value-for-money due to additional costs and construction risks, particularly the impacts to existing major Telstra services and Halfway Creek”.
‘Lazy MPs': Coast locals caught in crossfire over ‘nightmare’ M1 exit
October 2, 2021
A POLITICAL spat is brewing on the northern Gold Coast after state Transport Minister Mark Bailey’s department did not include a northbound slip lane as part of the $82 million upgrade of the M1 at Exit 41.
Following a petition for the road, that attracted 1100 signatures, locals met at Ormeau this week with Federal Forde MP Bert van Manen, state Coomera MP Michael Crandon and northern Division 1 councillor Mark Hammel.
The trio want to overturn a state government decision not to construct a slip lane from the northbound Exit 41 to the Norfolk Village residential area as part of the under-construction upgrade. Major works have been underway since June.
Mr Crandon said multiple requests were made to have a Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) member attend this week’s meeting to listen to residents’ concerns but no one attended.
The two LNP MPs and local councillor believe there hasn’t been enough community consultation, with Cr Hammel saying his office was just 100m from the current interchange but TMR had never approached him for input.
A fresh e-petition was lodged on October 1 asking parliament to ensure the Department of TMR recommenced the community consultation process saying it was not “properly conducted”.
But in a letter dated September 27 to Mr Crandon, Mr Bailey said TMR had advised it had undertaken extensive community consultation in early 2020 for the Exit 41 interchange upgrade, with some 11,000 newsletters distributed to residents and businesses in northern Gold Coast, including at Norfolk Village.
He said a result of feedback, a slip land on the southbound off-ramp had been included but the “lack of a northbound slip lane was not raised as an issue during community consultation”.
Mr Crandon said it was “unfathomable” Mr Bailey did not think a northbound slip lane was necessary.
“It makes total sense to separate the Norfolk Village traffic, travelling northbound on the M1 from the heavy commercial traffic that needs clearer access to the Yatala Enterprise area,” he said.
“To say that the community consultation that they had, didn’t reveal the need for a slip lane, is absolutely ridiculous.
“Residents have been fighting all that traffic going into and out of the commercial area, every afternoon, for too long.”
Mr Crandon said Mr Bailey’s statement that residents used Exit 45 to get to Norfolk Village was “quite ridiculous, given that it is already a nightmare” at that exit.
Cr Hammel said according to modelling data from council’s traffic engineers, more than 2000 cars every day come off the northbound M1 at Exit 41, turn left at the current slip lane and head south along Cuthbert Drive.
“In 20 years’ time, that traffic is forecast to almost double,” he said.
“It makes logical sense to future-proof this intersection by separating residential and industrial traffic.
He said some traffic at the new Exit 41 interchange would access the rapidly growing Yatala Enterprise Area, but a lot would travel back into Ormeau’s Norfolk Village area.
Cr Hammel said for Minister Bailey and TMR to say the community was consulted was “laughable”.
“I’ve not spoken to a single resident living in the area who was asked for their feedback on the Exit 41 upgrade, so the consultation was tokenistic at best,” he said.
“Even as the local councillor, whose office is located 100m from the current interchange, TMR never reached out to me to provide any input on the Exit 41 plan.
“When I raised this northern slip lane idea with council’s traffic engineering branch, it was the first they had ever heard about it. No one from our traffic engineering branch has been consulted.”
Cr Hammel said he was yet to see the data referred to by the TMR in the design process for Exit 41 despite making a request through council’s traffic branch.
Mr van Manen said the current design of Exit 41 had not been designed with the local community in mind.
“Our local community has spoken out, and we have listened. The Department of Transport and Main Roads cannot ignore this any longer,” he said.
Transport and Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey said long-term local LNP MPs Michael Crandon and Bert van Manen and Cr Hammel all failed to raise any issue in relation to a northbound slip lane during community consultation in early 2020.
“Despite the silence of the lazy local LNP MPs at the time, the project team listened to local community members who did show interest and made changes to the initial design,” he said.
“Those changes include adding a southbound left-turn slip lane to the final design that will allow traffic to access Eastern Service Road and Burnside Road.
“Mr van Manen’s own LNP government signed off on the early design last year which didn’t include a northbound slip lane.
“By the time they did raise the northbound slip lane as a local issue, we were starting work.”
Mr Bailey said despite these long term MPs “being asleep at the wheel” his department’s traffic specialists agreed to look at the feasibility of a northbound slip lane and see what could be done.
“Those investigations found most vehicles accessing Norfolk Village exited at Exit 45 and travelled north on the service roads, rather than exiting at Exit 41,” he said.
“The project team concluded that the low traffic volumes expected to use a northbound slip lane would not offer value-for-money due to additional costs and construction risks, particularly the impacts to existing major Telstra services and Halfway Creek.”
“These reasons were clearly explained to Bert van Manen and Michael Crandon months ago.”
The Exit 41 upgrade is one of several M1 exit upgrades the state government has planned on the northern Gold Coast, including Exit 45 at Ormeau and Exit 49 at Pimpama.
“These slow to act LNP MPs seem to follow the lead of our slow to act Prime Minister Scott Morrison in trying distract attention away from the snail’s paced vaccine rollout by Canberra and failure to build fit for purpose quarantine,” he said.
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